Through the Storm is a memoir written by Lynne Spears, the mother of Britney Spears. It talks about Lynne’s own life and her marriage and subsequent divorce with Britney’s father, Jamie and continues on through their life and Britney’s career from precocious toddler on to a international pop music superstar. Then it describes Britney’s estrangement and weird behavior last year from a mother’s perspective.

I know that Lynne Spears involvement in her daughter’s affairs are very controversial and that some people accuse her of not taking care of her daughter. I may be very naïve but I found her account of Britney’s rise t fame to be believable, it has the ring of truth. Britney had great talent and they work ethic and drive to make the most of that talent. What parent would not do what they could to help their children reach their full potential? I think that it would also be very hard to make wise decisions regarding a child’s career. Who could you trust?

I have to admit that I am more of a rock and roll and indie label music fan and do not particularly care for pop music all that much except that I am hooked to American Idol. Also, I don’t follow the celebrity news like who Is dating who and who has been arrested for DWI. I do though have sympathy for people who are hounded by paparazzi. I say all this because I guess that I am the only person in the world who had not heard anything about the ordeal that Britney Spears went through last year. I found her mother’s account of her daughter’s ordeal horrifying but believable.

One of the best things about the book is the description of being married to an alcoholic and how destructive it is to the family. I have read about it before. This book made me feel it.
I highly recommend this book. Not so much for learning about a pop star but to read about the love of a mother who admits she might have made a few mistakes but never stopped loving her daughter.

I picked up a paperback copy of this book to take on vacation. I usually take library books but I wanted to cut down the weight. I didn’t get around to reading it until just now.

I like Carl Hiaasen and have read and enjoyed several of his books including his young adult novels like “Hoot.”

“Strip Tease” is what I call a “Corner Chucker.” A Corner Chucker is a book that is not so bad that you can just put it down. You like something about it but don’t want to continue reading it. So years ago, before I discovered free books at the library, Sweetie and I would be in bed reading at night and I would just launch such a book to the corner of the room, startling Sweetie and scattering our various dogs and cats. It was my way of pyschologically separating myself from the book.

I wanted to like this book but I chucked it at about page 238. I didn’t like the last 220 pages. The book is about a nude dancer named Erin who works at a bar called the Eager Beaver trying to earn enough money to pay a lawyer to get custody of her child back. She gets involved in all sorts of escapades. The book has no sex scenes, just lots of naked dancers and a whole bunch of leering adolescent jokes and asides. Meanwhile the story didn’t go anywhere and many of the events taking place didn’t make sense.

So I chucked it.

I give this book one star out of four.

I’m reading “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan now. I hope that I finish it. Its not a library book. I hope that I don’t have to chuck it also.

Michael S. Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, a publisher of Christian books, offered a free copy of the subject book to the first 100 bloggers who promised to write a 200 word review of the book. I jumped at it since I don’t know anything about Barack Obama. I emailed Mr. Hyatt’s assistant the book arrived promptly. I wasn’t so prompt in reading the book and writing the review. But I’m finally done and below is my review.

The Faith of Barack Obama, by Stephen Mansfield

The Faith of Barack Obama is an interesting, sympathetic but neutral examination of Barack Obama’s life and faith. It includes a brief biography including his contact with Islam as a child that I found very fascinating. The book discusses his conversion and membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ. Also included is fascinating information on the church, the theology it backed, and its pastor, Jeremiah Wright, whose beliefs and sermons caused so much damage to Obama’s candidacy.

I found the book very helpful in learning about Obama’s beliefs, his faith and how his faith fit into his life. The book had much discussion but no conclusions about why Obama stayed at Trinity so long given Reverend Wright’s inflammatory belief’s and rhetoric. The discussion about the black church and civil religion is very instructive. I think that the idea that Obama learned how to “swallow the chicken but spit out the bone” probably described the situation accurately. I don’t think that anybody, but Obama, knows for sure about the matter.

The book is an important addition to my understanding of Mr. Obama. It was great to read something about a candidate that did not have a hidden agenda.

Just finished “The Spies of Warsaw” the first book I’ve ever read written by Alan Furst. The book is set in Poland in 1937. It concerns French Spies trying to find information about German armaments and plans for the invasion of France.

I don’t generally like historical fiction like this. I mean we know that the Germans kicked the French’s butt early on. This book though held my interest. It has a lot of plot turns, bad guys who get done in, romance, intrigue and not very many plot holes.

I give this ***1/2. I’ll be looking for other books by Mr. Furst.